Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources is drawing up policy to safeguard the province’s biodiversity. A draft of its Ontario Biodiversity Strategy (OBS) is open to public review until May 25.
“You go to other places in the world and biodiversity is a common phrase…the public in Ontario doesn’t know what it means,” said Jim MacLean, of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, who is managing the OBS project. To clear up the confusion, the document defines biodiversity as “the variety of life, as expressed through genes, species and ecosystems, that is shaped by ecological and evolutionary processes.”
According to MacLean, the government “started with a blank sheet of paper and asked them [the public] what they think should be in the strategy…what can we do in the next five years?” It has since evolved through public commentary and input from grassroots advocacy groups. The government seeks to engage the public on the matter, as opposed to regulation, MacLean explained. Ontarians must be aware of the strategy in order for it to succeed, since conservation depends on getting the public involved.
Some agreements in the past have had success. Through the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, signed by Canada and the United States in 1972, the two countries pledged to tackle pollution by adopting an ecosystem approach. This has greatly decreased pollution in the Great Lakes. The Species at Risk Act of 2003 aims to protect some of Canada’s most endangered species, such as the swift fox, trumpeter swan, ferruginous hawk, peregrine falcon, whooping crane, and wood bison.
One of the emerging threats to Ontario’s biodiversity, however, comes from urbanization. Ontario’s population is expected to increase by 4 million between 1996 and 2028. The OBS will have to accommodate this unprecedented level of urbanization, while retaining biodiversity. Like the canary in the mineshaft, city birds are good indicators of the existence of a dangerous imbalance in an ecosystem growing in numbers and complexity.
Elizabeth Zajc, at the University of Waterloo, has shown that a doubling in the amount of urbanization surrounding a habitat actually leads to a four-fold drop in bird diversity levels. Using Global Information System (GIS) technology and data about birds and vegetation, she has determined that the habitat area and the amount of urbanization surrounding it are the greatest factors in determining diversity. “We have to try to maximize habitat area while minimising urbanisation,” said Zajc. Her model may be used in future land-planning projects in the GTA.
